Wherever you go, however you get there, you always have traveling companions
-- germs.

Will these fellow travelers make you sick? That depends partly on luck,
experts say. But you can do a lot to protect yourself.

The modes of transportation most often blamed for spreading disease are
airplanes, cruise ships, and subway trains. Are they just scapegoats? Or are
these popular conveyances really making us ill? WebMD asked experts who've
studied transportation health.

Up in the Air, Germs Are There

The Ides of March, 2003, was unlucky indeed for the 120 travelers who that
day boarded Air China flight 112. The Boeing 737-300 completed its three-hour
flight from Hong Kong to Beijing without apparent incident. But coughing in seat
14E -- a middle seat near the center of the plane -- was a person carrying the
deadly SARS virus.

Within eight days, 20 passengers and two flight attendants would come down
with SARS. Some of those who became infected were sitting as far as seven rows
away from the man carrying the SARS virus. Five would die.

It's not just SARS - and it's not just China. In 1979 a commercial airliner
sat on the tarmac for three hours with its ventilation system shut down. Someone
on board had the flu -- and, within three days, so did nearly three-fourths of
the plane's passengers.